Rising waters

When the waters rise because of global warming, Willow Lake might end up being part of Flushing Bay. I've seen an estimate of 1-10 feet rising of the sea level. My home is 95 feet above sea level, but 85 would surely be in a different world. 

Birders can't deny global warming because more southern kinds of birds are showing up in New York. The Times has an article about how the Anhinga is showing up in New York City. "Anhingas in the United States generally range from the Southern states along the gulf coast to Texas, stretching into the Carolinas in the summer." They've been spotted in Prospect Park. 

There's a memoir I want to read by Camille Dungy called Soil that I want to read. (NPR)

Thoreau quotes

After rain

 

I used a stick to try and drain the puddles on the path. It didn't really work, when I came back hours later the puddles were smaller, but I think it was soaking in and evaporation. 

Met a guy birding, said he’d seen warblers. He had Sibley’s guide. He didn’t know the eagles had stayed longer this year.

Further down the path a woman got off a bike and practiced her snare drum. When I came a few hours later, she was still practicing her drum. 

 

Ranger

I came upon a ranger training a volunteer to cut invasive species. Sumac trees had vines trying to take them over, so they just clip them to thwart their attempted takeover. The reeds are invasive! It's about supporting the trees. I asked if they did the burn a few years back and she said you can’t do that in the city. 

Got a link for the stewardship program. And there's a super stewardship program.

I read the paque about Queens Valley Park and they talk about Kew Garden Hills being called Hopedale, and that Vleigh was the road to Brooklyn. Forest Hills was called Whitepot. 

Transcendentalism

 

My meditation view.

Transcendentalism was trying to shuck off restrictive Puritanical thinking gone off the rails. Too much clamping down leads to weirdness. As the beats extended the movement to hedonistic absurdity, it took a turn back into Buddhism. Not fusty Buddhism but the freedom loving Buddhism.

Spring

The days are longer and not just because we added an hour in the evening. As you go north or south from the equator the seasons are more exaggerated. 

Willow Lake is  made out Willow Creek, that leads to Flushing Bay, north western Long Island. Two highways bookmark the area, the Grand Central Parkway, and the Van Wyck Expressway. The subway rail yard is on one side and Jewel Avenue the other. On the other side of the highway is Forest Hills. On the other Kew Garden Hills.